You are not logged in!

F.A.Q
Log in

Register
  
 
  
Now online (2)
belb
big
...and 68 guests

Last 5 registered
Oplandisks
nothingstar
N_loop
yipe
foxtrotromeo

Browse members...
  
 
Members 8025
Messages 2608104
Today 21
Topics 127198
  
 
Messageboard index
bill gates writing critique
 

offline EpicMegatrax from Greatest Hits on 2023-03-20 03:38 [#02626045]
Points: 23981 Status: Addict



Opinion | Bill Gates ~ LAZY_TITLE

that i spot this opinion column The Bill has penned in NYT,
and nevermind what he has to say; i want to see how he says
it: how does this man actually write? i never got around to
reading "the road ahead" -- probably not worth it at this
point

in any case:

‌When the World Health Organization first described
Covid-19 as a pandemic just over three years ago, it marked
the culmination of a collective failure to prepare for
pandemics despite many warnings. And I worry that we’re
making ‌‌those same mistakes again. The world hasn’t
done as much to get ready for the next pandemic as I’d
hoped. But ‌‌it’s not too late to stop history from
repeating itself. The world needs a well-funded system that
is ready to spring into action at a moment’s notice when
danger emerges. ‌We need a fire department for
pandemics.


bill gates is reading this aloud at some lecture hall full
of Important People. And then he makes his point.

bill gates starts to describe what's gone wrong. But it's
not too late to stop it

i'm not really sure what i was expecting, here: it's
competent, but as soulless as his operating system. firmly
rooted in how you write a speech... for idiots... an in
intense reliance on a maddening, plodding A/B structure to
everything: bill gates is waxing on about something. And
then he makes his point. But it's not too late. this shows
up throughout his opinion article in conformal ways

he's so boring that he can't even take boring very far. that
if he were too boring, well, that might be
interesting -- and we can't have that.


 

online big from lsg on 2023-03-20 17:20 [#02626051]
Points: 23188 Status: Regular | Show recordbag



bill gates is a criminal, in many aspects, but one is
concerning the pandemic. he prevented the vaccine from being
open source. so he's responsible for countless deaths in
poorer countries (countries historically screwed over by
rich countries, in other words: the West).

so i agree with his little speech. and one solution to the
problem he describes, the only really right one, is
abolishing capitalism and abolishing billionaires


 

online big from lsg on 2023-03-20 17:21 [#02626052]
Points: 23188 Status: Regular | Show recordbag



of course the speech is boring as heck. maybe it's more
bearable live. but the man is good at jumping chairs


 

offline EpicMegatrax from Greatest Hits on 2023-03-20 21:33 [#02626053]
Points: 23981 Status: Addict | Followup to big: #02626052



jumping chairs

i haven't heard this one before. i can guess. but this
sounds like it's good; i've missed it until now. can you
define this, please? so i can use it properly


 

offline EpicMegatrax from Greatest Hits on 2023-03-20 21:39 [#02626054]
Points: 23981 Status: Addict | Followup to big: #02626051



bill gates is a criminal, in many aspects, but one is
concerning the pandemic


bill gates is a poker player. "pirates of silicon valley"
is, i feel, a pretty true-to-life snapshot of Gates, at the
very least. that he bluffs IBM into a massive contract for
DOS saying they already have it built, while they actually
have jack fucking shit. then he turns around and buys
someone else's OS for $50k and reskins it; microsoft is
made

when i was, like, then, some friends and i were blasted all
over the newspaper for a brief moment for running a computer
charity. one of my childhood friends in on the venture met
Gates in person at a speech and he agreed to donate to the
cause -- and, what did he send? twelve boxed copies of
win95. shrewdly self-promotional to the end. but that was
still mad cool when i was, like, 11

meanwhile, after #metoo, it's floated out that... he's never
been sketchy; he very solidly accepted no for an answer. but
he was still trawling around microsoft for dates long after
he'd been married; now he ain't no more

so his whole charity thing is... partly, like, catholic
guilt, i imagine... and he'll never wash himself clean of it
at this rate... but also, i'm thinking of bezos. bezos is
like "my money is going to charity but i'm not going to
simply cut checks here; i'm looking for return on my
investment" and so it is with Gates. even when doing
charity, the capitalist, the poker player dominates


 

offline EpicMegatrax from Greatest Hits on 2023-03-20 21:42 [#02626055]
Points: 23981 Status: Addict



i really was just posting about my reaction to his op-ed
style, though. i'll reiterate: i'm not sure what i was
expecting

and, yeah: it's kind of like, "the writing is good enough,
i'm moving on now" and it's incredibly boring without being
so boring that this in itself becomes noteworthy.
solidly ticks the boxes while assiduously avoiding going
above and beyond in absolutely any detail.


 

offline EpicMegatrax from Greatest Hits on 2023-03-20 21:55 [#02626057]
Points: 23981 Status: Addict



rupert murdoch is a mass murderer. i don't see a real need
to waste much time bashing Gates. at least the guy is
trying to try


 

offline EpicMegatrax from Greatest Hits on 2023-03-20 22:52 [#02626061]
Points: 23981 Status: Addict



and then there's richard branson, the consummate
freeze-dried hippy, and it's rather sad watching him now. he
said something like, "people are like flowers, just water
them with a little love and watch them grow" and never mind
anything else he's done; that's a beautiful advice and a
beautiful quote.

meanwhile, after he lands from space, it's like "oh god
please put your shirt back on" and his space company is
going bankrupt and if you take a step back history would
look a lot more kindly on him if he'd just packed it in and
focused on forest botany or something ten years ago.

it's a better version of the same shit. he still wants to go
kitesurfing; to win yacht races. that's what got him where
he is, along with what does seem like genuine love for
people. but past his arc now; quiet down you're just blowing
it


 

offline EpicMegatrax from Greatest Hits on 2023-03-20 23:28 [#02626062]
Points: 23981 Status: Addict



LAZY_TITLE


 

offline EpicMegatrax from Greatest Hits on 2023-03-21 00:36 [#02626063]
Points: 23981 Status: Addict



>=4 times now, i've seen people in completely unrelated
bubbles spontaneously refer to bezos as a "soul-less robot."
but i've also read about "puppy-like energy" and how he
would run up and down the stairwell, fast as he could, and
never take the elevator, and

sorry, that's actually sort of like me. stuck in meetings
all day? run up seven floors and feel better; amped when you
get to the next one. have little patience for the weird
looks. if they're too dumb to get it, fuck 'em -- but i
can't fire people

so it's this sort of engineering enthusiasm, almost, like,
optimize my life. down to: fuck elevators; stairs are
religion. the problem is -- he can fire people. and that not
how everyone do. scale that up to a company that is about to
launch thousands of satellites this year to build their own
personal global comms network


 

offline EpicMegatrax from Greatest Hits on 2023-03-21 00:39 [#02626064]
Points: 23981 Status: Addict



bezos onto something, though, when he recently said "i'm
writing a giant check to dolly parton; she's so nice. i'm
sure she'll do great things"

essentially admitting he's too much of a crab to do it right
and carefully outsourcing to a reliable talent.


 

offline EpicMegatrax from Greatest Hits on 2023-03-21 03:49 [#02626065]
Points: 23981 Status: Addict



i suppose my utmost question: was bezos pumping out tunes
loud on cans as he pounded the stairs? i lean towards no;
that's where he and i differ


 

offline EpicMegatrax from Greatest Hits on 2023-03-21 03:51 [#02626066]
Points: 23981 Status: Addict



LAZY_TITLE


 

offline EpicMegatrax from Greatest Hits on 2023-03-21 03:52 [#02626067]
Points: 23981 Status: Addict



what sort of music does jeff bezos like
if any

very curious.


 

offline EpicMegatrax from Greatest Hits on 2023-03-21 04:14 [#02626068]
Points: 23981 Status: Addict



Unlike most of the great minds on this list, Jeff Bezos
was not a music lover. In fact, it has been revealed that
Bezos has “a lack of interest in music of any kind.” As
a teenager, Jeff memorized the call letters of local radio
stations so he could fake his knowledgeability to the music
scene. He let Steve Jobs hire away his music editor, Keith
Moerer, ultimately letting Moere and Jobs seize the lead in
creating the iPod. However, Bezos has not given up on music
just yet; he revealed in an interview with Billboard in
February that he believes voice-activated home devices like
Amazon Echo is the “next gigantic growth area” for the
music industry. While he is definitely passionate about the
potential of the music industry and streaming, not much is
known about his actual taste in music other than that he’s
a fan of “Americana,” the Amazon music station that his
business partner Steve Boom is in charge of and that he’s
a fan of the Zac Brown Band.


i take it all back. this man is a fucking psycho. he and i
are nothing alike. i regret giving him the benefit of the
doubt


 

offline EpicMegatrax from Greatest Hits on 2023-03-21 04:24 [#02626070]
Points: 23981 Status: Addict | Followup to EpicMegatrax: #02626068



In fact, it has been revealed that Bezos has “a lack of
interest in music of any kind.”


i don't know what to say except that i personally view this
as a warning sign of the highest order: that i do not want
anything to do with this fucked-up trog. even if you seen
cool to hang out with. especially if you're hot. then it's
going to be a severe mess


 

offline EpicMegatrax from Greatest Hits on 2023-03-21 04:25 [#02626071]
Points: 23981 Status: Addict



seemmm


 

online big from lsg on 2023-03-22 23:50 [#02626104]
Points: 23188 Status: Regular | Show recordbag



here's a cool jump (Google 'Gates' and 'jump chair' to see him.
I have to admit it's a close second.)


 

offline steve mcqueen from caerdydd (United Kingdom) on 2023-03-24 22:04 [#02626135]
Points: 6148 Status: Addict



YO MAN YOU READ "HACKERS AND PAINTERS"
at least Graham has some kind of generalising nouse
also visits Hay on Wye fairly regulray to buy used boosk...


 

offline steve mcqueen from caerdydd (United Kingdom) on 2023-03-24 22:05 [#02626136]
Points: 6148 Status: Addict



plus, lisp
plus Hay on Wye... shouts 2 Richard Booth [look him up]


 

offline steve mcqueen from caerdydd (United Kingdom) on 2023-03-24 22:43 [#02626137]
Points: 6148 Status: Addict



serum


 

offline EpicMegatrax from Greatest Hits on 2023-03-25 07:36 [#02626147]
Points: 23981 Status: Addict | Followup to steve mcqueen: #02626135



YO MAN YOU READ "HACKERS AND PAINTERS"

that i've never heard of this. or any of what you say. which
actually makes me deeply curious

i mean, i've read plenty, though. that steven levy's
"hackers" is probably towards the top of my list. but some
genius grouped all these books in a snuggly, invisible
alcove for me, that no one else was terribly interested in
the books in that corner and... really, i can't recall ever
not having it to myself. but just running a few

dealers of lightning is a bit snoozy but it's deeply
important. jon littman's collaborations with mitnick while
he was on the run were delightful. then there was actually
quite a good number of like M.O.D. and... i remember
reading one book... it was towards the trashy end, but
memorable. especially for opening with a political protest
computer worm called Worms Against Nuclear Killers
(W.A.N.K.), another worm that showed a picture of the
governor of trenton, nj as a worm being run over by a train
on the train schedule, and i think something about an
australian band called The Oils. later in this book, there
was a stretch about Mendax, kind of on odd duck who stashed
his disks with the illegal stuff inside of a beehive
because... obviously. that it could have been fifteen or
twenty years after reading this that i finally put all the
pieces together, and realized that Mendax is Julian Assange,
and i'd read about his escapades years before wikileaks or
anything. then i'm figuring it out years after that's been
going on; that was a trip


 

offline EpicMegatrax from Greatest Hits on 2023-03-25 07:46 [#02626149]
Points: 23981 Status: Addict



the cuckoo's egg, by cliff stoll. that book is the OG


 

offline EpicMegatrax from Greatest Hits on 2023-03-25 08:06 [#02626150]
Points: 23981 Status: Addict



not that it really matters. but i've met LPD, aka peter
deutsch, from the first triptych lump of hackers. i remember
as i got obsessed with that book in the early 90s, my dad
kept saying, "oh, i know that guy a few times." LPD was one,
and, bit after my dad passed, wrote him, saying, my dad knew
you somehow, maybe say hello sometime? and answer was rather
cosmic, really, like "i live on the opposite coast but i'll
be in the train station you pass through every day for work
bored and waiting for a changeover next week" and i imagine
i came off as a weird bastard -- because i am -- but that
was cool. i suppose he is most known as the inventor of
ghostscript. but then he changed my mind on ecmascript a bit
and was saying things about SIMD that were above my hed


 

offline EpicMegatrax from Greatest Hits on 2023-03-25 08:33 [#02626156]
Points: 23981 Status: Addict



just a laugh. that if you are dead-set on doxing me -- why?
i'm more irritating than interesting; thx -- if the library
still has that first-ish edition hardcover of hackers
that's where you can get my fingerprints, on those pages.
you'll have to scale up from when i was eleven. if it will
help, i can cite brands of junk food you can search for
traces of to match the prints


 

offline EpicMegatrax from Greatest Hits on 2023-03-25 08:48 [#02626158]
Points: 23981 Status: Addict



i remember going to get the older, more dog-eared copy of
Hackers that i own at some bookstore. really blows my mind
how clearly i can pull this shit back, and... no, Levy was
not there.

that i'll just have a giggle on meeting book authors,
because i have met precisely two (2) of note, and they were
both notable

1) dan brown

he was on a tour that included our local barnes and/or noble
that was at a mall that was... a bit out of the way, but
still decidedly upscale. i don't really remember the
conversation except to say that i probably said a lot and he
was very tolerant. very polite and nice. i got a signed
copy. i read it as somewhat horrified; this man understands
computers worse than hollywood. i put the book on a shelf
and forgot about it. around 2014, when i really needed cash,
i sold it for $150 or so. i've not read or watched da vinci
anything, thanks, nor do i plan to

2) William Sleator

this man's books, actually pretty mind-bending when i was
just reaching out to my teens. interstellar pig freaky enough,
but Singularity haunts me to this day.

i remember him going on a very bitchy rant about R. L. Stein
in front of me and my fellow 9-10yo's. as bad as that sounds
at first, i think he was absolutely. fucking. right. that
Stein just farts out those books with no thought; no effort;
makes a million

my ontology at this point is i got goofy and donald duck to
sign my autograph book at disneyland. i ask him for an
autograph. he informs me -- making me feel a bit bad, but
not too bad -- that protocol is that you're supposed to buy
a book, but signs his autograph anyways, a few pages after
goofy.

he moved to thailand and i am beyond certain he is a
pedophile.


 

offline EpicMegatrax from Greatest Hits on 2023-03-25 08:51 [#02626159]
Points: 23981 Status: Addict



1 -- digital fortress (1998)


 

offline EpicMegatrax from Greatest Hits on 2023-03-25 09:00 [#02626160]
Points: 23981 Status: Addict



oh my gosh, Sleator was just brill. i keep coming up with
more. he told this story: this woman i knew had this
annoying dog and i kept being like, please don't bring that
freaking dog over, and she kept bringing the stupid little
dog over, and then it shat on a carpet i liked very much,
and so i wrote the dog into my book and then killed it

that i actually remember being rather upset about how the
dog was treated in the story, and that was rather
mind-blowing, at nine years old, to hear how the story had
been crafted in this juncture


 

offline EpicMegatrax from Greatest Hits on 2023-04-27 18:55 [#02626956]
Points: 23981 Status: Addict | Followup to EpicMegatrax: #02626160



i want to just dig this up as, like: the fucking shit you
will never read anywhere else. did you read the books of
William Sleator in the 90s as a lad and, like, hey, these
are fucking great? did you then read R. L. Stein
books and think: oh my god these are fucking shit

that i didn't have the vocabulary, but this was, more or
less my opinion, when William Sleator showed up for my 5th
grade class, when i was then -- in retrospect, probably a
bit sauced -- and went on a rant about how R. L. Sleator was
crap, how a friend of his wouldn't stop bringing her dog
over and the dog pooped on his rug so he wrote it into his
book and then killed it, then the weird tangent about
thailand. railing on me for asking for an autograph without
a book to sign but then remembering i'm just a kid and
dialing back and signing it anyways and in the end getting
it just right; made me feel rude but still did it

and even before i saw the "love's secret domain" video once
i was old enough to understand sex to understand what his
thailand thing was about. and now that i'm older than that,
i read, he had a grand old time in thailand, a bit of a
drinker, had a stroke on his second thai boyfriend one day

and i just feel i owe it to the man, to say it, because i
don't think anyone else will: this guy was an epic freaking
bastard. he was a treasure. a crabby, drunk treasure


 

offline EpicMegatrax from Greatest Hits on 2023-04-27 18:57 [#02626957]
Points: 23981 Status: Addict



*when i was ten -- and, in retrospect, he probably was a bit
sauced


 

offline EpicMegatrax from Greatest Hits on 2023-04-27 19:33 [#02626958]
Points: 23981 Status: Addict



it was quite a sensation for me, as a ten year old, to hear
an adult go on what the world would eventually call a bitchy
internet rant in front of a bunch of ten year old kids,
because he was right, he was so fucking right. then there
was some context behind his books, including the thing with
the dog. then, one of his books was some autobiographical
childhood stories; blowing up a soda bottle in a hallway
with dry ice down the hall from dad's office. he did the
charles dickens book tour thing and just respun them aloud
in front of us, much shorter for the time bracket, and he
was wonderful at it. then a decidedly strange digression
into thailand -- i can quote bits of it, but it wouldn't
make much sense. then, much like an adult book event,
everyone diffuses, there's some chat and signings. if
anything, his issue is he was very, very deeply seriously
writing children's books and this makes it hard for anyone
to take you seriously on a critical level. that he was fine
with this, thanks, but then to see r. l. stein...

i can dredge up, perhaps, one other guest star in 5th grade,
the guy who brought a whole bunch of calculators -- this was
the early 90's -- including one branded SHRAP which i loved
as much as he did. other than that, he and i had little in
common

but sleator. very vivid memory


 


Messageboard index